Syria and Diplomacy 2917


The problem with the Geneva Communique from the first Geneva round on Syria is that the government of Syria never subscribed to it.  It was jointly chaired by the League of Arab States for Syria, whatever that may mean.  Another problem is that it is, as so many diplomatic documents are, highly ambiguous.  It plainly advocates a power sharing executive formed by some of the current government plus the opposition to oversee a transition to democracy.  But it does not state which elements of the current government, and it does not mention which elements of the opposition, nor does it make plain if President Assad himself is eligible to be part of, or to head, the power-sharing executive, and whether he is eligible to be a candidate in future democratic elections.

Doubtless the British, for example, would argue that the term transition implies that he will go.  The Russians will argue there is no such implication and the text does not exclude anybody from the process.  Doubtless also diplomats on all sides were fully aware of these differing interpretations and the ambiguity is quite deliberate to enable an agreed text. I would say that the text tends much more to the “western” side, and that this reflects the apparently weak military position of the Assad regime at that time and the then extant threat of western military intervention.  There has been a radical shift in those factors against the western side in the interim. Expect Russian interpretations now to get more hardline.

Given the extreme ambiguity of the text, Iran has, as it frequently does, shot itself in the foot diplomatically by refusing to accept the communique as the basis of talks and thus getting excluded from Geneva.  Iran should have accepted the communique, and then at Geneva issued its own interpretation of it.

But that is a minor point.  The farcical thing about the Geneva conference is that it is attempting to promote into power-sharing in Syria “opposition” members who have no democratic credentials and represent a scarcely significant portion of those actually fighting the Assad regime in Syria.  What the West are trying to achieve is what the CIA and Mossad have now achieved in Egypt; replacing the head of the Mubarak regime while keeping all its power structures in place. The West don’t really want democracy in Syria, they just want a less pro-Russian leader of the power structures.

The inability of the British left to understand the Middle East is pathetic.  I recall arguing with commenters on this blog who supported the overthrow of the elected President of Egypt Morsi on the grounds that his overthrow was supporting secularism, judicial independence (missing the entirely obvious fact the Egyptian judiciary are almost all puppets of the military) and would lead to a left wing revolutionary outcome.  Similarly the demonstrations against Erdogan in Istanbul, orchestrated by very similar pro-military forces to those now in charge in Egypt, were also hailed by commenters here.  The word “secularist” seems to obviate all sins when it comes to the Middle East.

Qatar will be present at Geneva, and Qatar has just launched a pre-emptive media offensive by launching a dossier on torture and murder of detainees by the Assad regime, which is being given first headline treatment by the BBC all morning

There would be a good dossier to be issued on torture in detention in Qatar, and the lives of slave workers there, but that is another question.

I do not doubt at all that atrocities have been committed and are being committed by the Assad regime.  It is a very unpleasant regime indeed.  The fact that atrocities are also being committed by various rebel groups does not make Syrian government atrocities any better.

But whether 11,000 people really were murdered in a single detainee camp I am unsure.  What I do know is that the BBC presentation of today’s report has been a disgrace.  The report was commissioned by the government of Qatar who commissioned Carter Ruck to do it.  Both those organisations are infamous suppressors of free speech.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC are presenting the report as though it were produced by neutral experts, whereas the opposite is the case.  It is produced not by anti torture campaigners or by human rights activists, but by lawyers who are doing it purely and simply because they are being paid to do it.

The BBC are showing enormous deference to Sir Desmond De Silva, who is introduced as a former UN war crimes prosecutor.  He is indeed that, but it is not the capacity in which he is now acting.  He is acting as a barrister in private practice.  Before he was a UN prosecutor, he was for decades a criminal defence lawyer and has defended many murderers.  He has since acted to suppress the truth being published about many celebrities, including John Terry.

If the Assad regime and not the government of Qatar had instructed him and paid him, he would now be on our screens arguing the opposite case to that he is putting.  That is his job.  He probably regards that as not reprehensible.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC do not make it plain, but introduce him as a UN war crimes prosecutor as though he were acting in that capacity or out of concern for human rights.  I can find no evidence of his having an especial love for human rights in the abstract, when he is not being paid for it.  He produced an official UK government report into the murder of Pat Finucane, a murder organised by British authorities, which Pat Finucane’s widow described as a “sham”.  He was also put in charge of quietly sweeping the Israeli murders on the Gaza flotilla under the carpet at the UN.

The question any decent journalist should be asking him is “Sir Desmond De Silva, how much did the government of Qatar pay you for your part in preparing this report?  How much did it pay the other experts?  Does your fee from the Government of Qatar include this TV interview, or are you charging separately for your time in giving this interview?  In short how much are you being paid to say this?”

That is what any decent journalist would ask.  Which is why you will never hear those questions on the BBC.

 

 

 


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2,917 thoughts on “Syria and Diplomacy

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  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Mr Goss (17h37)

    And in turn, I would observe again :

    “I second every word of that, Mr Goss.

    I would go further and say that “we” (who’s the “we”, by the way?) should sue every Western European govt for a variety of offences.

    I would furthermore propose Vladimir Putin as the President of the Court and a panel of assessors consisting exclusively of Chinese.”

  • Mary

    For info if you are anywhere near the venues –

    Palestinian lives, British profits: speaking tour

    Monday 24 February — Saturday 1 March

    Join us in your city for a unique opportunity to hear from War on Want and partner organisation ADDAMEER Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

    Palestinian lives, British profits

    This tour comes at a crucial moment: 5,033 Palestinians are detained by Israel, including 173 children, and 145 administrative detainees held without charge or trial. The British corporation G4S continues to provide security systems, equipment and ongoing services to Israeli prisons at which human rights organisations have documented systematic torture and ill treatment of Palestinian prisoners, including child prisoners.

    Speaker tour dates and locations

    Mon 24 Feb 6pm University of Kent. Rutherford Lecture Theatre 1, University Road
    Wed 26 Feb 7pm University College London. Darwin Building, Room B40
    Thr 27 Feb 7pm Durham University. Chemistry Department CG85
    Fri 28 Feb 7pm University of Edinburgh. Old college, lecture theatre 183
    Sat 1 Mar 2pm University of Dundee. D’Arcy Thompson lecture theatre, Tower Building

    We are working with partners on the ground in Palestine to end G4S complicity in Israel’s prison system. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from an inspiring Palestinian grassroots organisation and to get involved with War on Want’s Stop G4S campaign.

    *** All speaking tour events are open to the public + free admission ***

    This speaking tour is part of the upcoming tenth annual Israeli Apartheid Week and organised with Palestine Societies and Action Palestine student groups on university campuses across the UK.

    http://waronwant.org/news/events/18062-palestinian-lives-british-profits-speaking-tour

    I will try to make the London one. I bet that Jonathan Hoffman of the ZF will be there to disrupt the meeting as he has done so many times at meetings held to support Palestine.
    http://www.thejc.com/users/jonathan-hoffman

  • Mary

    Zionism in practice – Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property

    24 hours to 8am 07 February 2014

    3 attacks – 23 raids including home invasions – 47 injured – 5 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 13 taken prisoner – 13 detained – 106 restrictions of movement

    Israeli tanks shell Abassan al-Jadida

    Israeli Navy twice opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats

    Israeli Army uproots 220 olive trees in 2 West Bank villages

    Israeli settlers and troops injure 6 people, including 2 minors

    Israeli Army raid: stun and tear gas grenades – assaults – 39 injured and hospitalised

    Israeli troops seize and hold captive two 12-year-old boys

    Zionist Army terrified of poetry reading

    Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp and 9 towns and villages

    Details here http://www.sapienspromise.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3050

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    From Mary re the shooting Royal Princes:

    “I actually think that they are laughing in our faces yet again with the timing of their save the wildlife campaign and the news of the shooting party. They will look for any signs of strong reaction to their antics from the people, which there won’t be as they are so brainwashed. Their position is thus reinforced. Another turn of the screw is made.”
    __________________________

    The above repays careful reading as a perfect example of Alice in Wonderland ‘logic’.

  • Herbie

    Albright was certainly touted as a potential Czech president, and by no less than Havel himself:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/659215.stm

    She wasn’t eligible for the US Presidency. Surprised you didn’t know that, habby.

    Would have saved you making a tit of yourself waffling on about churnalism and idle speculation and whatnot else in a vain attempt to distract from your utter cluelessness of world affairs.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    One day cricket

    Habbabkuk 20, but Mary closing in on him quite fast with 13 runs so far. Thrilling few hours left before close of play. Strong showing from Mr Goss and A Node in Mary’s XI.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Herbie

    Shouldn’t you be reserving your scorn for the touters and the Eminences that quote from them?

    And to remain on the subject : what’s your opinion on the Copenhagen Zoo’s decision to kill a healthy young giraffe and feed his meat to the lions and tigers?

  • Clark

    Mary, 8:22 am,

    “It’s a great wonder that ‘Gilabrand’ has not taken his/her black marker pen to these entries.”

    Maybe Gilabrand has. The following link takes you to Gilabrand’s recent editing history, which currently shows a very large deletion from List of villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Gilabrand

    But that doesn’t mean that Gilabrand gets away with it every time. Removal of properly-sourced material constitutes “vandalism” on Wikipedia; it’s against Wikipedia’s rules, and other editors will reverse such edits. On Gilabrand’s Talk page you can see that there are currently ninety-four other editors watching Gilabrand’s activity; some of those will be supporters and others opponents. Gilabrand has been investigated and reprimanded multiple times for pushing a particular point of view on Wikipedia. The Wikipedia rule against this is called WP:NPOV.

    Gilabrand is an experienced and highly productive Wikipedia editor, many other contributions being in the area of Israeli and Jewish culture. By making valuable contributions Gilabrand earns respect which bestows protection while pursuing an anti-Palestinian agenda. There are hundreds of such partisan editors on Wikipedia, on all sides of many contested issues. The pro-Israelis are a particularly well-educated and organised group. The pro-Palestinians tend to suffer from on average poorer fluency in English and poorer understanding of Wikipedia’s rules.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    “For info if you are anywhere near the venues –

    Palestinian lives, British profits: speaking tour…..
    ….Speaker tour dates and locations

    Mon 24 Feb 6pm University of Kent. Rutherford Lecture Theatre 1, University Road
    Wed 26 Feb 7pm University College London. Darwin Building, Room B40
    Thr 27 Feb 7pm Durham University. Chemistry Department CG85
    Fri 28 Feb 7pm University of Edinburgh. Old college, lecture theatre 183
    Sat 1 Mar 2pm University of Dundee. D’Arcy Thompson lecture theatre, Tower Building….
    ….This speaking tour is part of the upcoming tenth annual Israeli Apartheid Week and organised with Palestine Societies and Action Palestine student groups on university campuses across the UK.”
    ___________________________

    Thank you for this info, Mary. I find these event a heartening example of the open, pluralistic and even-handed atmosphere in which important political events can be evoked, discussed and debated in the UK of 2014. Not to mention the freedom of speech and expresssion which people in the UK enjoy. To think that there are some clowns out there who talk about “creeping fascism”!

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    “Strong showing from Mr Goss and A Node in Mary’s XI.”
    ________________

    And from you too of course, Herbie. Sorry to have overlooked you!

  • A Node

    Thanks for the clarification, Herbie. As well as Vaclav Havel, she had also caught the eye of Radovan Karadžić, although he wasn’t so enamoured ….

    “During his first hearing in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Radovan Karadžić stated that Albright[93] along with Richard Holbrooke offered him a deal which would allow him avoid prosecution for asserted war crimes if he left public life and politics. According to Karadžić, Albright offered him a chance to relocate to Russia, Greece, or Serbia and open a private clinic, or to go to Bijeljina.[94] Karadžić was quoted as saying that Holbrooke or Albright would like to see him disappear and expressed the fear for his life by saying “I do not know how long the arm of Mr Holbrooke or Mrs Albright is … or whether that arm can reach me here”.[95]”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    To disprove Herbie’s claim that I’m ignorant of world affairs (although who on earth is he to judge…), I’ll offer the following:

    One thing Messrs Putin, Assad, Castro, Maduro Moros (sorry, Mary!), Kim Jong Il (have I got that right?) and the strong-men rulers of China have in common is that they are admired by many on this blog. My non-ignorance of world affairs allows me to state with absolute confidence that another thing they all have in common is that they are not Jewish. Could these two facts be related?

  • Mary

    It was ever thus Clark on the non-representation of the Palestinian case on the British media. How many times do we hear a Palestinian on BBC Radio 4 or see one on BBC TV News? Hardly ever yet there is a perfectly fluent Palestinian Ambassador based in Hammersmith, Prof Manuel Hassassian.

    Instead we get yards of stuff from the voluble Mark Regev from Israel, or old Ron Prosor late of Kensington Green and now at the UN who was always on the screen or coming over the airwaves. His replacement in London is Daniel Taub and he has been on the airwaves a few times already to my knowledge.

    On the UK Israeli Embassy website home page there is this boast.

    19,200 new immigrants arrive in Israel in 2013 30 December 2013

    60% of immigrants to Israel in 2013 were under the age of 35 and include professionals and academics in the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and exact sciences, including over 700 doctors and other healthcare professionals.

    http://www.embassyofisrael.co.uk/news/in-the-media/19200-new-immigrants-arrive-in-israel-in-2013/

    They do not say how many are leaving though!

    Here’s some counterbalance.

    Goliath: Life and Loathing In Greater Israel: Max Blumenthal

    Operation Cast Lead in 2008, is a starting point in the book Goliath: Life and Loathing In Greater Israel where award winning journalist and author Max Blumenthal shows the reader how a right wing government in Israel rose to power. His book takes hard look at Israeli authoritarian politics through a cross section of interviews from the homes of Palestinian activists to the political leaders behind the organized assault against civil liberties. Max gives readers a rare look into Israeli society that many will not write about.

    Max Blumenthal:
    ◾The first title was Master Race Democracy.
    ◾Of course Israel is always portrayed in our media as this plucky little David surrounded by the Arab Goliath. Of course our reality is 180 degrees different.
    ◾Matzpen warned that this would happen, they took a full page ad in Harretz saying we will become a police state and a nation of murderers.
    ◾That’s where I come in to show that all of their darkest prophecies have been fulfilled and realized.
    ◾I take you through Israeli society and through the key institutions of Israeli life to show how its playing out.
    ◾From my time in Jerusalem where an anti miscegenation movement is burgeoning in the streets of Israel, leading mob attacks on young Palestinian men who are accused of making passes at Jewish women to the convention at the Jerusalem Ramada where key state Rabbis sit on a panel before right-wing settlers, including settler vigilantes leaders of the anti miscegenation movement defend a book, a guide on how and when its permissible to kill non-jews. A guide to genocide which is being distributed in Israeli Army units.
    ◾Avigdor Lieberman is the man that basically promised to transfer 100s of thousands of Palestinians. He’s a rising force in Israeli society. It’s the youth whose hearts and minds they command.
    ◾I take you into the Knesset to meet the younger legislators and the rising stars in Lieberman’s party and Netanhayu’s party who are far to the right of Netanyahu. Netanyahu really just commands the hollow center of Israeli politics.
    ◾Rotem was great because he and other hard core right wingers have this whole philosophy of being dugri or straight. There was nothing I could say to shake him. He looks at me coming in at just another pathetic Jewish liberal who doesn’t really get what it takes to prevent a second holocaust and that’s what he said his goal was.
    ◾It’s completely different from talking to a Republican in the United States who has to pander to some kind of civil rights sensibility.
    ◾That’s another thing reviewers missed about my book is that I analyzed these key votes on major anti-democratic laws going back to 2009. Laws like the Nakba Law which basically criminalized observance of Palestine dispossession in 2008. Laws like the Acceptance to Community Law which legitimizes racial and religious discrimination for communities of under 500.
    ◾These are laws that strip off the veneer of democracy and expose apartheid for what it is.
    ◾It’s the right-wing that has captured the heart of Israeli society because they have the dynamism, they’re driving the agenda forward. (using a simple mantra – “finish 48″)
    ◾In 1948 and actually starting in 1947, 750 thousand Palestinian Arabs were expelled to allow the creation of a Jewish state with a Jewish demographic majority, but many stayed behind. 20 percent of the state of Israel is non-Jewish Palestinian.
    ◾They view Palestinian citizens of Israel increasingly as a fifth column, as a trojan horse for the Arab world, for Arab nationalism and Islamism.
    ◾In order to become a citizen of Israel you have swear loyalty to the Jewish state and that applies to Palestinians in east Jerusalem.
    ◾You will meet the people who are trying to push back inside Jewish-Israeli society on the pages of my book because they were my roommates, my friends. They took me to the flashpoints of ethnic cleansing and conflict.
    ◾I would number 700 or less active left wingers who are actively leveling their bodies against the occupation and apartheid.
    ◾The writings on the wall for these activists that there is very little room for them left in Israeli society.
    ◾What they’ve (leftists in Israel) done is call to the outside. They’re calling to us. They organized around the boycott from within committee and they’re signing letters asking performers not to come to Israel. They’re signing letters calling on Americans to boycott their country.
    ◾That is really where the activism of the radical left wing Israelis is going.
    ◾The Jewish National Fund is supposed to operate within the Green Line only and is probably the leading Jewish non-profit in the world. It receives the most donations from diaspora Jews in the world.
    ◾Steven Harper the Prime Minister of Canada recently spoke at one of their banquets. They’ve paid Bill Clinton hundreds of thousands to speak at their banquets.
    ◾They are also the premier organization linked to the Israeli government involved in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
    ◾It’s something we talk about a lot. How Zionism is trying to capture Judaism and change what it means to be a Jew and declare us to be who are not only not Zionists but object to this redefinition of Judaism and cast us out and declare us to be anathema.
    ◾You can see it in my video Feeling the Hate where I go to the heart of Jerusalem and meet American Jews from around the country and they line up around my camera the night before Barack Obama’s historic address in Cairo.
    ◾Zionism is attracting those who are magnetized by the kind of bellicose identity that it requires and is repelling anyone who has any liberal sensibility or at least throwing them into a moral crisis.
    ◾I showed up as # 9 on Simon Weisenthal Center’s list of anti-Israel, anti-semites and they called me an anti-semitic Jew, not even a self-hating Jew but a Jew who hates Jews.
    ◾I was tied with Alice Walker by the way.
    ◾They literally count the calorie of each Gaza resident with complex mathematical formulas.
    ◾Barack Obama has never challenged the idea of holding 1.8 million under siege because they possess the wrong ethnicity.
    ◾When a situation like this is taking place and expanding as Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions says into a “global Gaza” where the techniques that have been used to control people in the Gaza Strip are literally being exported because Israel is the only country that has the ability to basically lab test such a regime of domination.
    ◾That’s very appealing to people in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security, to private prison companies like CCA.
    ◾Twitter – @maxblumenthal

    Guest – Max Blumenthal, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose articles and video documentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Guardian, The Independent Film Channel, The Huffington Post, Salon, Al Jazeera English and many other publications. He is a former Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow for The Nation Institute. His book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party, is a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller.

    http://lawanddisorder.org/2014/02/law-and-disorder-february-10-2014/

  • John Goss

    Glad “one” mentioned Castro who made the following statement in January 1985:

    “In our country we have a military base against the will of our people. It has been there throughout the twenty-six years of the revolution, and it is being occupied by force. We have the moral and legal right to demand its return. We have made the claim in the moral and legal way. We do not intend to recover it with the use of arms. It is part of our territory being occupied by a U.S. military base. Never has anyone, a revolutionary cadre, a revolutionary leader, or a fellow citizen, had the idea of recovering the piece of our territory by the use of force. If some day it will be ours, it will not be by the use of force, but the advance of the consciousness of justice in the world.”

    Since that time, against the terms of a treaty, the US (bully of the world) has built a prison for torturing and imprisoning nearly 800 internees. More have died there than been convicted of any terrorist crime. Shaker Aamer is still there and David Cameron refuses to respond to my very important letter.

    http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/01/24/free-shaker-aamer-from-gitmo-an-open-letter-to-british-pm-david-cameron/

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Mr Goss

    I knew you’d get in a good word for Castro. Please don’t hesitate to do so for the rest of that rogues’ gallery if you wish.

    By the way, let’s not rehearse yet again the question of the legal status of the base at Guantanamo. I recall that there was a long and in-depth discussion on this on this blog many months ago (together with verbatim quotes from the two treaties concerned) where it was clearly established that talk of that base being “illegal” was plain wrong. I believe it was one of the first issues on which I had to set right, politely but firmly, various Eminences.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Mary

    I found that last post of yours disappointingly short. Buck up and give your hungry readers a man-sized steak please, not a mini-hamburger.

  • Herbie

    Habby

    Do you understand the distinction that has been made between Islam and political Islamicism, and if so can you not see that there is a similar distinction to be made between Judaism and political Zionism?

  • nevermind

    If you don’t mind, poor soul, we will talk about inhumanities in Guantanamo here as lomng as we see fit and there is enough reason to do so, wether its to your liking or not.

    It is a torture camp for people who are mostly innocent, something that gives impetus to the Talibans recruitment with the aim of keeping the lucrative war on terrorism alive.

    It is also a sign that paranoia is alive and well, it is kept at a level that sustains the effort of very rich people who will only get richer with every bullet fired.

    Those who question that this is a humane lawfull attempt at holding prisoners are fibbing, they need this to justify their own cruelty and they find new excuses for their psychopathic behaviour.

    BTW. Mary the petition that didn’t work has been revamped and put up somewhere else according to Paul. Thanks for that revealing video Herbie.

    http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-and-members-of-congress-apply-the-same-policy-to-both-the-iranian-and-israeli-nuclear-development-programs

  • Mary

    A friend has been in touch with Paul Larudee. He has put up a new petition for UK users. Hope this helps.

    Hi…….

    I’m closing this petition and opening the same one on change.org. Hopefully, there will not be a problem with the new one, but as far as I can tell, the only way to find out is to try.

    Paul

    Petitioning President Obama and members of Congress

    Apply the same policy to both the Iranian and Israeli nuclear development programs.

    Petition by Global March to Jerusalem – North America

    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has announced that they “remain strongly committed to the passage of the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act”. The proposed act seeks to impose new sanctions on Iran, which would presumably annul the agreement negotiated by Secretary of State Kerry and the Obama administration to restrict Iran’s uranium enrichment program far below weapons grade and to eliminate existing stocks of partially enriched uranium. President Obama has said that he will veto the legislation if it passes Congress.

    We support President Obama and members of Congress who oppose the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act. Those who support the act should pair it with a Nuclear Weapon Free Israel Act, with the same sanctions to be applied to Israel as to Iran if it does not comply equally with the same constraints on its nuclear program. The US must be consistent in its foreign policy and hold all nations to the same standard.

    The best solution is a nuclear weapons free Middle East and a nuclear weapons free world.

    To: President Obama and members of Congress

    Apply the same policy to both the Iranian and Israeli nuclear development programs.

    Sincerely,
    [Your name]

    http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-and-members-of-congress-apply-the-same-policy-to-both-the-iranian-and-israeli-nuclear-development-programs

  • A Node

    Statistical analysis of ambassadorial representation of Israel and Palestine in BBC online news.

    Daniel Taub has been ambassador to the UK since June 2011 = 31 months
    Put “Taub” into BBC online news search box and get 12 results since June 2011

    Manuel Hassassian has been ambassador to the UK since September 2005 = 100 months
    Put “Hassassian” into BBC online news search box and get 9 results since September 2005

    Frequency of mentions in BBC online news …..
    Taub : Hassassian = 12/31 : 9/100 = 4.3 : 1

  • Resident Dissident

    @Herbie

    “can you not see that there is a similar distinction to be made between Judaism and political Zionism?”

    Perhaps you might wish to point out the distinction to many who post here who are unable to distinguish between anti-Judaism (or anti Semitism to give it its more usual and dictionary definition) and anti-Zionism. The failure to be able to distinguish has made this blog little short of a sewer in recent days – where is the criticism of Dieudonne or of that ridiculous Jewish tribalism rant from Guano, which was pretty much the sort of thing the Nazis wrote except that they replaced Zionist with Jewsis conspiracy or similar.

    And yes I perfectly understand the difference between Islam and political Islamicism – its just that there are a number of Moslems who do not wish such a distinction to exist.

  • John Goss

    Habbabkuk 10 Feb, 2014 – 7:24 pm

    You continue to dig yourself into a deep hole in your misunderstanding of US illegal occupation of Cuba. The page from which I took the Castro quote was written by an American citizen. Feel free to read this history because you may learn something that could enable “one” for once to make an intelligent contribution to one of the debates on world affairs.

    http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/guantan.htm

    By the way I’m still waiting for your rationale as to why we should be celebrating with you the UK economic growth predictions of the IMF.

  • Clark

    More from Wikipedia / Gilabrand; we also get little matters like this: Asaf Romirowsky was an Israel Defense Forces international relations liaison officer in the West Bank and Jordan and now describes himself as an analyst on Middle Eastern affairs. He has a website and a Wikipedia page:

    http://www.romirowsky.com/about/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asaf_Romirowsky

    He probably holds both Israeli and US citizenship, but he’d rather not be described as Israeli on Wikipedia. Gilabrand added an “Israel-academic-bio-stub” and a “Category:Israeli military personnel” to his page. Romirowsky apparently e-mailed Wikipedia about this, as an WP:OTRS volunteer called Amatulić asked Gilabrand to refrain from adding such information. Gilabrand’s response was that Romirowsky doesn’t deserve a Wikipedia page at all:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Gilabrand#Asaf_Romirowsky

    Just one tiny Wikipedia drama; there must be masses of this sort of thing.

  • Mary

    Sorry for the double posting of the petition Nevermind. I did not look back for obvious reasons as we seem to having a storm today and tonight. 😉

  • BrianFujisan

    Mary

    The new petition works ok…it had my details up soon as i typed in the first letter of my name… Ehh….at 16 supporters.

    on another Note –

    The top recipient of U.S. foreign aid over the past three decades isn’t some impoverished land filled with starving kids, but a wealthy nation with a per-head gross domestic product on par with the European Union average, and higher than that of Italy, Spain, or South Korea.

    This top recipient of such aid — nearly all of it military since 2008 — has been busily engaged in what looks like a nineteenth-century-style colonization project. In the late 1940s, our beneficiary expelled some 700,000 indigenous people from the land it was claiming. In 1967, our client seized some contiguous pieces of real estate and ever since has been colonizing these territories with nearly 650,000 of its own people. It has divided the conquered lands with myriad checkpoints and roads accessible only to the colonizers and is building a 440-mile wall around (and cutting into) the conquered territory, creating a geography of control that violates international law.

    “Ethnic cleansing” is a harsh term, but apt for a situation in which people are driven out of their homes and lands because they are not of the right tribe. Though many will balk at leveling this charge against Israel — for that country is, of course, the top recipient of American aid and especially military largesse — who would hesitate to use the term if, in a mirror-image world, all of this were being inflicted on Israeli Jews?

    More on this piece @

    http://stopwar.org.uk/news/how-us-bankrolling-of-israel-s-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinians-destroys-all-hope-of-peace#.UvlDdGJ_uqj

  • Mary

    Read this proprietorial little piece. You would think that the Israelis owned Jerusalem.

    Jerusalem – More than just an ancient city filled with religious sites and historic attractions, Jerusalem is a modern travel destination with an international flair, boasting world-class museums, unique cultural events and inspiring contemporary attractions.

    “We are more excited than ever to welcome travelers to Jerusalem to discover the exciting lineup of art, culture and music-focused events taking place as part of the Jerusalem Calendar of Culture 2014,” said Haim Gutin, Israel Commissioner for Tourism, North and South America. “And with the city’s collection of five-star and boutique hotels, thriving culinary scene and unparalleled collection of historic holy sites, there is no better time than now to visit my hometown of Jerusalem.”

    This year, Jerusalem will offer a diverse collection of art, dance, music and cultural events taking place as part of its annual Calendar of Culture 2014, including:

    The Winter Noise Cultural Festival (February 2014), which will transform downtown Jerusalem into a lively outdoor cultural festival every Monday in February, including music, dance, street theater, video art and art master classes open to the public in open-air locations.

    http://digitaljournal.com/life/travel/jerusalem-season-of-culture-2014/article/369421

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